Cis Privilege Isn't Real
But its impact is.
Trigger Warning: general TERFery, sub-optimal formatting, and unnecessary curses, as always.
Contents:
Introduction and Inspiration
The Privilege at the Root
Trans-Identified Men Weaponize Victimhood Culture
TMAs and TMEs
Oppressioncrafting 101
How “Cis Privilege” Hurts Women
Pretty Hair is a Privilege
Oppressioncrafting 102
Cis Privilege in Reality
Introduction and Inspiration
You know what word I kind of hate? Privilege.
What was meant as a helpful concept to remind those with some advantages of the fact that they have those advantages has turned into a weapon wielded without any regard for precision despite the fact that accusations of privilege do not land neutrally.
Personally, I believe the word was tainted from the start due to its association with wealth and class; and then the sloppiness with which it has been applied has caused all manner of confusion and grievances. It manages to conflate issues such as race and class in a way that is very much not representative of the real world, leaving some of the most vulnerable out of the conversation.
Another issue I have with the p-word is regarding the ease and frequency at which it is weaponized against people: particularly those who have been socially conditioned to not center themselves. Trans-identified men and their allies have successfully managed to convince millions of Western women that they hold much of this intangible resource referred to as “privilege” over “trans women” simply seeking to live their lives in peace.
Truthfully, there is no such thing as “cis privilege” for women. This is a made-up concept meant to center trans-identified men over women by leveraging our conditioning that encourages us to prioritize others.
What is further concerning is that the fetishization of womanhood is being held up as a cluster of privileges simply due to the prioritization of a man's perspective over the lived realities of women. Their hungry desire warps sexism into enviable social allowances.
There are plenty of autogynephiles who are just dying to experience the unique thrill of being treated like a cheap slut or series of holes, but that want doesn't make these desires privileges.
Suddenly, an activity such as walking around in women's clothing becomes a basic human right that is being denied to pitiable men. It is now a privilege for women to have the choice to dress in traditionally feminine clothing without getting the side eye. This reframing is not only insulting, but it greatly invalidates the true nature of sex and privilege.
Getting hassled as a man wearing traditionally female clothing is not due to a lack of privilege. In fact, look at how accepting society has become of this behavior that was considered to be sexually deviant and wholly unacceptable until not very long ago.
The Privilege at the Root
Listen: the very ability of a man to declare himself a woman based on a subjective feeling and then demand he be given access to women's resources and spaces is a matter of immense privilege. Trans-identified men recoil at reminders of the fact that they have this male privilege, entitlement, and socialization. Without these elements, however, they would have no ability to shoulder their way into all manner of spaces where they are not welcome. They would be incapable of these behaviors because they simply would not be tolerated.
Trans-identified men have ruined events and spaces meant for women, especially lesbians, in a way trans-identified women couldn’t dream of. If they are unsuccessful in forcing their own participation, they will find a way to ensure that no one will participate in whatever the event or resource happens to be.
Trans-Identified Men Weaponize Victimhood Culture
The trans community has made an art of leveraging victimhood culture. I may not be a huge fan of their choices, but they have done an incredible job of casting a small group of men as a vulnerable group at risk from, well, everyone. Honestly, A+ work on this. I cannot deny you the credit you very much deserve.
Another problem I have with this concept of privilege is that it's used to invalidate the experiences of a great many people - especially straight white men. The weight assigned to one's “privilege” often far exceeds its actual value in strength and scope. That being said, straight white men are not a marginalized group. And yet, most of the trans community is composed of these individuals.
That's part of what I find frustrating and fascinating about the dynamic at play here: as soon as a straight white dude puts on a dress, he is in need of considerations that prioritize him while harming or neglecting women. Never mind the fact that he has chosen to present himself in a manner aligned with cultural expectations of femininity, which is, a choice. Women cannot remove their womanhood and leave it behind. We do not have access to an on-off switch that allow us to move between social stations.
Trans advocates will argue that there is no choice involved in this dynamic - one's transness is innate. If this is the case, it is still your decision to dress the way that you do. Not dressing in an overtly feminine manner has no bearing on your womanhood, if you are one.
TMAs and TMEs
Thank you to River Grunfeld for publishing this informative piece showing how even within the transgender world, men are constructing false dynamics in order to place and keep themselves as the victims, while real women are cast as the privileged.
Understanding the concept of TMAs and TMEs requires that you are familiar with the term “transmisogyny”.
You see, due to the magical nature of “gender”, a man dressing and acting according to societal expectations of women is an empowering act that has no bearing on actual women. However, if one of these so-called “cis” bitches pretends to be a trans-identified man, she is guilty of transmisogynistic appropriation. This is a big no-no and must be dealt with in a swift and decisive manner.
To put it simply:
Scenario 1
A man wears makeup, a dress, high heels, and long hair because he “identifies as” a woman. This is not appropriation.
Scenario 2
A woman puts a rolled up sock in her panties to simulate the appearance of being a “chick with a dick”. This is appropriation and is highly bigoted.
This isn't hypothetical, as much as I wish it were. These battles have been publicly waged online, with the loudest voices being those of the dudes in dresses. They are beyond offended by young women emulating them simply by creating some sort of “bulge” in their drawers. Apparently, the irony is lost on them.
When it comes to trans-identified women, they don't face “transmisogyny” because they are “trans men” and men don't have to struggle with this bigotry. (They just have to handle the existent issue of real-ass misogyny, but we can't acknowledge that.)
And with that, you have the basis for a new victimhood dynamic centering the least vulnerable while pushing real women into the role of privileged oppressor:
Transmisogyny Affected = trans-identified men
Transmisogyny Exempt = trans-identified women
TMA becomes shorthand for “oppressed, vulnerable, victim whose concerns are of the utmost priority” while TME represents someone unaffected by transmisogyny, and therefore, appropriative oppression.
Use of this shorthand has replaced the wildly inaccurate but descriptive “trans men” and “trans women” in some online communities - reducing these two groups to their false victimhood status. Men are the affected, the afflicted, the pained. Women somehow manage to escape their oppression by poorly imitating men.
It's my guess that while many trans-identified men do believe in this dynamic, a great number of them actually know better and continue to perpetuate this series of harmful lies in order to maintain their victimhood status.
But, I mean, can you blame them?
Oppressioncrafting 101
Within the trans world, we find this artificial victimhood structure of TMAs and TMEs. Outside, the concept of “cis privilege” affords trans-identified men victimhood status beneath so-called “cis” women. This is just one reason why so many feminists reject the qualifier “cis” before woman. It's not just unnecessary, but its inaccuracy frames a bunch of men as another subset of women, but at a lower level of privilege than natal women. Women are women. Men are not women. End of story.
How “Cis Privilege” Hurts Women
I suspect that the idea of “cis privilege” has been one of several major influences on women's acceptance of trans-identified men. As much as many would like to deny it, being “accused” of privilege isn't a neutral act. The accusation arrives packaged in behavioral expectations. It carries emotional weight and a moral obligation to put others before yourself in the name of progress and equity.
Social conditioning and cultural expectations influence how women experience this phenomenon, which is, believe it or not, generally not great for them either psychologically or physically.
Among other outcomes, this concept of “cis privilege” puts women in a vulnerable position through the following means:
Encourages guilt
Discourages boundary setting
Reverses victim/offender narrative
Creates pressure for compliance
You may notice that these very distinct consequences result from being forced to prioritize men while endangering the well-being of women through increased vulnerability.
It is truly sinister to disarm women in this way: it's one thing to deny them their rights and safety, but making them think they owe you permission to violate their boundaries is extra fucked up.
Many citizens of the internet love to blame women for transgenderism as a whole, and more specifically for the consequences they suffer as a result of this movement. There are so many men out there who think that they’re way smarter than they are when they leave “women allowed this and its ur fault” in response to an intelligent observation or piece of writing related to the subject.
As a result, we have a two-tiered approach to blaming women for the negative impacts of transgenderism on their lives:
Tier One: You are privileged in a way that means you owe trans-identified men access to your resources, rights, safety, privacy, and dignity.
Tier Two: Women have largely promoted and encouraged trans-identified men in their behavior, meaning that you are partially responsible for their behavior and owe them access to your resources, rights, safety, privacy, and dignity. Or, at the very least, you have no right to complain.
Pretty Hair is a Privilege
In addition to these manipulative structures of false privilege, many of the everyday facts of life for women that these men envy are, in their mind, privileges.
This dialogue generally does not impact women directly because it takes place amongst trans-identified men themselves. For those absolutely dying to become the slutty anime princess of their dreams, just being a woman is considered a privilege. Autogynephilic envy warps their view of womanhood into a set of privileges they are cruelly denied.
What is worrying about this particular obsession isn't the psychological impact on women, as they are largely unaware of this dynamic. What I find concerning is the anger and desire to enact violence upon these foci of envious desire that can be witnessed in online trans spaces. It frightens me that there are men who feel perfectly comfortable publicly sharing their desire to destroy the pretty “cis” faces they cannot possess.
Also, welcome to fucking womanhood. Far too much of it is about not being pretty and thin enough. Unlike giggle-filled bathroom chats about menstruation and bra size, this is an authentic female experience. Savor it.
Oppressioncrafting 102
Like much of the suffering experienced by the trans community, their supposed lack of privilege is largely theoretical.
While much of it is imagined, trans advocates will point to real life events as proof of discrimination. There was a a bill recently passed into law in Kansas requiring trans-identified folks to update birth certificates and government issued identification to reflect their sex, rather than “gender identity”.
What's happening here is that a couple thousand people are required to fill out some paperwork and get updated documents to adhere to the law. If you were to read some online accounts of what is happening, you'd think people are being rounded up by the bus load by men with assault rifles and disappeared forever.
Online histrionics make hyperbolic reference to Hitler’s campaign against homosexuals or claim that concentration camps are in the process of being constructed to house those who claim trans identities.
Not only do they dramatize reality, but they craft new truths to suit their lives and desires. Online echo chambers ramp up fear and paranoia, especially amongst the terminally online. After some time, you have a vague climate of fear and oppression that doesn’t rely on facts but stands in for reality.
Technically speaking, a woman’s access to the world without suffering the self-imposed consequences of this manufactured fear and oppression is her “cis privilege.”
Cis Privilege in Reality
This might be an excellent time to mention that any “privileges” women possess are, in fact, hard won rights. And yes, this distinction is important. Even the right to single sex washroom facilities was a hard fought battle that we are being told to abandon at our detriment. The vulnerability of a woman’s social position is given no consideration.
It’s bad enough to cast basic rights to safety as meaningless structures to break down thoughtlessly for the benefit of men. It’s so much worse when access to these “rights” or “privileges” was the result of real conflict taking place in the real world. Lives were ruined and sometimes ended in the fight for single-sex facilities and the right to vote. These are not privileges, but rather necessities that our foresisters demanded and fought for.
In contrast, many so-called “trans women” never leave mom's basement - instead spending day after day in internet echo chambers that remind them of how vulnerable they are as victims and how the entire world has been pitted against them. The current landscape of protest and resistance would be unrecognizable to those who fought for women's suffrage. Cowardly “men” push women's boundaries, effectively digitally undoing the hard work that required people of the past to show up and put themselves at risk. They demand that women living in the real ass world be given no space to themselves while never even leaving their own house.
This scene of a fully grown man crying genocide behind his keyboard while demanding access to spaces he'll never need at the detriment of women who live and work outside the home encapsulates the cruel absurdity of the situation.
I was briefly tempted to list examples of “cis privilege” women truly do possess, but that doesn't exactly make for pleasant reading. I could give you at least one hundred examples: women are more likely to be raped and murdered outside of the world of prostitution. How about ultimate responsibility when it comes to children and childbearing? Perhaps we should consider all of the institutionalized sexism that not only goes unchecked, but is a fundamental part of established systems. Protecting trans-identified men is all the rage, but protecting women has never been in style.
If we want to go more extreme, we can cite horrific experiences such as female genital mutilation and female infanticide. Even then, we have more than enough fodder to either properly disturb an audience or put them to sleep.
Misogyny is built into the patriarchy. The systems we rail against are monolithic, emotionally bereft bundles of sexist prejudices against women backed by systematic discrimination. There are no comparable structures designed to limit and control the lives of trans-identified men.
While there may be some obvious discomfort and discrimination against trans-identified men, it's superficial and unsupported by decades of institutionalized sexism. Put plainly: it's not even close to the same fucking thing.
What is it is a tool, a story, a piece of propaganda that we are told to swallow without question. It's a sly way to decenter women, even within their own sex class.
What it is not is a reason to allow guilt or internalized sexism to betray you. It's not a reason for women to give up any of our tenuous grasp on the progress we've made.
Trans-identified men may be the flashy new social justice project for kind and compassionate liberal women, but their “progress” comes at our own expense, either now or later. Be thee wary.
Until next time, stay guilty of thought crimes!
Madfem XX
Of all the misogyny infused into gender ideology, the myth of "cis privilege" is the most odious.
I abhor the oppression Olympics; the patriarchy is eating us all alive. My takeaway: NO COMPLIANCE, silence is our shared enemy.